Sorting it out one load at a time.

January 9, 2014

Sweater Stone

Remember Dana Carvey’s Church Lady?

For those of you that are young, Dana Carvey is a comedian. He was on Saturday Night Live when it was still a very funny show. His character was a stereotypical…well, church lady. She was convinced everything was satanic. It’s hard to explain, so if you have never heard of The Church Lady, here you go.

Apparently, a group of satanists (can’t say I was aware they had organized) have submitted plans for a statue, seat, monument type of thing for the Oklahoma statehouse grounds. Their monument has a big horned guy, whatever the satan symbol is, and it is in the shape of a seat so people can, “sit and visit with satan.”

I’m sorry if this scares some people, but I found it very funny. Especially when the article mentions another group requesting representation, the Pastafarians. They worship The Flying Spaghetti Monster. Good stuff.

Back to the satan group, they have raised $16,000.00 and are requesting that the statue be put next to the ten commandments monument which hopefully will be removed by the courts soon because it has no business being there either.

I’m assuming the satan people are trying to make a point? They went to an awful lot of trouble to draw up plans and submit documents, but they can’t be serious, right? Wasn’t putting the ten commandments out in front of a government building ridiculous enough? I don’t understand these groups, or religions in general, and their need to…propagate in granite.

What’s with all the monuments? I can’t imagine that real people invested in religions or belief sets support this kind of mockery. Hopefully it’s just a case of the crazies getting attention.

Half way through the article, I was really happy we are a nation founded on a definitive separation of church and state. This stuff feels like those people on the streets in big cities that are always trying to hand out flyers for foot messages or a chakra alignment.

None of it has any business being approved or erected. We have churches and other places of worship for prayer or “sitting with satan.” Whatever floats a person’s boat, I’m sure there’s a place for it.

It seems absurd that legislators, who should be dealing with the welfare of all people, education, and healthcare, would be distracted by such nonsense. So silly, and maybe that’s why Church Lady came to mind. It’s comedy.

That’s super odd.
I was just talking to a friend today, over lunch, who is Muslim and grew up in Kenya, though she is of Indian descent. She blew me away because she said that at her school in Nairobi they openly embraced all religions, and without conflict. They would have “religion assembly” and a student who was Muslim, Christian, Sikh, (and other things I’m too ignorant to remember her mentioning) would each take turns saying their prayer and then the whole assembly would sing each other’s songs. She said they also had “religion day” where you would go around and have booths for your religion and learn about other people’s, much like a cultural fair you might see here in America. Blew my mind. They don’t make a big deal out of it and so it is not a big deal.

Comedy, indeed. However SNL lost is funny when Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Jane Curtin, Gilda Radner and the likes–but then I am divulging my age, and I am only 35 in my mind. I just want to add that I live in a state where the Governor stands on the steps of the Capital building and prays for rain. *eye roll*

Thanks for reminding me about Church Lady.
I’m with you; we must have better things to do, more interesting things to memorialize. I propose, in honor of Richard Brautigan, that we erect a statue of a rutabaga by the ballpark.

You are welcome. Speaking of better things to do, now I need to stop watching SNL clips. Thanks for introducing me to Richard Brautigan, at first glance he is quite monument worthy. I have some reading to do.